Will X-Rays Find Spreading Breast Cancer?

Related

I had a 4.8 cm breast cancer lump with no lymph node involvement. I started having severe pain on that side of my chest when bending over. Now the pain is happening when I just lean forward. Also, I’m recently experiencing discomfort when I inhale. I read somewhere that a woman was having yearly X-rays to detect metastasis to the lungs. My oncologist has not ordered such X-rays. Should I be getting this type of X-ray, and if so, what is this type of X-ray called? Also, I did not have reconstruction; when I have my six-month blood work, my doctor does not examine my chest wall. Should she be doing that?

The big question for you is whether there is any concern about local recurrence at the chest wall or inside your lungs. Every doctor or oncologist you see should be routinely examining you physically — including the chest wall — to detect signs of recurrence. In general, however, we don’t regularly use any kind of imaging tests to look for recurrence or metastatic disease. These types of tests frequently fail to find potential lesions because they are too small to be detected. And by the time a lesion is detectable, the patient has established metastatic disease. The cat is out of the bag.

In addition, imaging tests can often reveal lesions of no significance, and it becomes potentially harmful and anxiety-provoking to investigate them further. Some oncologists do routinely evaluate for lung metastases with chest X-rays, but it probably isn’t necessary, and certainly the practice of screening with chest X-rays is not supported by the medical literature.

Until a breakthrough imaging test becomes available to screen for metastatic disease without the concerns I mentioned above, we will still struggle with your questions.

That said, if you are having symptoms, then an appropriate first test might be a chest X-ray, a CT scan of the chest, or a bone scan to evaluate whether recurrent disease is present. From there, appropriate actions can be taken to get a diagnosis or relieve your discomfort.

This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

Advertising Notice

This Site and third parties who place advertisements on this Site may collect and use information about
your visits to this Site and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of
interest to you. If you would like to obtain more information about these advertising practices and to make
choices about online behavioral advertising, please click here.